What happens if they are full when you get there??

My wife and I are staying at CN Feb 20 for 7 nights and I see that CN and CSA are both at capacity during that time. Last year for our last night they were looking for volunteers to go to CSA for the last night so they could have room for the arrivals at CN. Has this happened to you and what did you get or have to due. I have considered taking Tim-Air to be there earlier, around 4, so we would not be the last few!!!

Oh dang. I hadn't thought of that. Good thing we are taking a red eye and will be to MBJ by about 10am. Hopefully that will help us out. When we went to CSA the first time we got in to MBJ at about 130pm I think. The other couple on the shuttle with us had booked a room that was overbooked so they were bumped to some other room. I don't know if they went up or down the room scale though. I assume they would try to upgrade you if possible but sometimes there is nothing available. What happens when they have to downgrade you? Do you get refunded the difference?

Last year in the April/May/June time frame there were a host of Mexican resorts that actually closed due to the H1N1 scare. Tour operators really scrambled to relocate folks to other destinations, many to Couples.

We heard at SweptAway that they had enough people from that scramble that they had to ask staff to find other quarters.

Depending on when you went last year, perhaps you fell into that time frame...

Many years ago, before SweptAway was in the Couples family, we "volunteered" to be moved down the beach to a wonderful little place called Sea Spray. We still had the use of all of the ammenities of SweptAway, but we slept in our one-bedroom apartment off-site.....but this was just for one night.

It was my understanding that they do not overbook on purpose but I could be wrong. When booking this next trip on the couples site I noticed that the room I wanted had sold out the day before. (Should have booked the previous day!) I looked on other travel sites and it was still available so I called customer service. They said the room was indeed sold out so we went with a different room rather than booking through one of the other sites and taking our chances. I didn't want to get bumped to whatever was available or make it so someone else was. Those other sites had the room I wanted for sale for a few days. I assume that is how they get overbooked.

From a pure business perspective, if this were to happen regularly, you would be hearing about major expansions... I heard somewhere that the target for average occupancy rates is 70-75% in the hotel industry. While the resort industry's target may be higher than that (witness Randymon's "Wednesday Couplicious" specials), I doubt that they would ever expect a 100% target... that would not be particularly wise.

Obviously, it happens... as in last year's H1N1 event... but not the norm.

Being bumped

That is so unfortunate indeed. To plan a trip based on a specific resort and destination and then to possibly be bumped! I've never heard of resorts (especially ones with complete prepayment) being overbooked. I too would be interested in hearing the management's response to this issue. I'm going to CN on 2/4 and now getting somewhat nervous...

We never overbook our resorts intentionally. In fact,we work diligently to avoid any overbooking problems at any of our resorts. On a very rare occasion - as Melody has inferred - communications from some of our tour operator partners may lag by 24-48 hours. In a peak booking/travel period that delay could mean the difference between a resort at 95% occupancy to suddenly at 105%.

In these rare instances, we recognize the disappointment and inconvenience associated with moving affected guests to another resort. Compensation is commensurate with the relocation. Sometimes as also stated above, we are able to get enough in-house guests to "volunteer" to move in exchange for free night(s) on a return trip. When not enough guests volunteer or other circumstances dictate we make every effort to advise you prior to arrival.

Well, I can see someone being upset if they are first timers but for me, I might like to go to CN to see what it is like and for a few free nights next trip, I would be all for it. Maybe it is just me. I am fairly flexible in most things... Randymon, keep that in mind if you need to get rid of a few free nights...